Masturbating may protect against prostate cancer

Beat your meat. Doctor’s orders.

News articles and features | New Scientist

A team in Australia led by Graham Giles of The Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne asked 1079 men with prostate cancer to fill in a questionnaire detailing their sexual habits, and compared their responses with those of 1259 healthy men of the same age. The team concludes that the more men ejaculate between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop prostate cancer.

The protective effect is greatest while men are in their twenties: those who had ejaculated more than five times per week in their twenties, for instance, were one-third less likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer later in life (BJU International, vol 92, p 211).

The results contradict those of previous studies, which have suggested that having had many sexual partners, or a high frequency of sexual activity, increases the risk of prostate cancer by up to 40 per cent. The key difference is that these earlier studies defined sexual activity as sexual intercourse, whereas the latest study focused on the number of ejaculations, whether or not intercourse was involved.

The team speculates that infections caused by intercourse may increase the risk of prostate cancer. "Had we been able to remove ejaculations associated with sexual intercourse, there should have been an even stronger protective effect of other ejaculations," they suggest. "Men have many ways of using their prostate which do not involve women or other men," Giles adds.

Macho exaggeration

Giles accepts the possibility that the men who completed the questionnaires could have lied about their habits. But he doubts this skewed the results, since questions about masturbation are unlikely to evoke the same macho exaggeration as questions about, say, number of sexual partners.

But why should ejaculating more often cut the risk of prostate cancer? The team speculates that ejaculation prevents carcinogens building up in the gland. The prostate, together with the seminal vesicles, secretes the bulk of the fluid in semen, which is rich in substances such as potassium, zinc, fructose and citric acid.

Generating the fluid involves concentrating these components from the bloodstream up to 600-fold - and this could be where the trouble starts. Studies in dogs show that carcinogens such as 3-methylcholanthrene, found in cigarette smoke, are also concentrated in prostate fluid.

"It’s a prostatic stagnation hypothesis," says Giles. "The more you flush the ducts out, the less there is to hang around and damage the cells that line them."

Sexual repertoire

His findings suggest an intriguing parallel between prostate cancer and breast cancer, as recent studies indicate that lactating reduces a woman’s risk of breast cancer, perhaps because this also flushes out carcinogens. Alternatively, ejaculation might induce prostate cells to mature fully, making them less susceptible to carcinogens.

"All these mechanisms are totally speculative," cautions breast cancer expert Loren Lipworth of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Maryland.

But if the finding is confirmed, future health advice from doctors may no longer be restricted to diet and exercise. "Masturbation is part of people’s sexual repertoire," says Anthony Smith, deputy director of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University in Melbourne.

"If these findings hold up, then it’s perfectly reasonable that men should be encouraged to masturbate," he says.

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If this is true, then my prostate is pristine and totally cancer free.

I used to wack it at least 2 times a day when I was in my 20’s —that’s not even counting all the real sex I had :)

Ike;

An emerging theory in bacterial prostatitis prevention, too, is frequent ejaculation and I am convinced now that this may well be one factor in recurrance.

My own uro. gave me a “prescription” (endlessly renewable, of course) to get off sexually or to masturbate at least 3 x a week no matter how busy life might be. Since getting on the Program, I’ve gone longer without a recurrance than for any period in many years and currently have no prostatic symptoms.

I was told also to use condoms for sex for six months (although I otherwise wouldn’t need to) and with no recurrance during that time I’m going to continue to do that. Much easier than repeated bouts of prostatitis, and the ejaculation prescription is not difficult to take, either.

I’m all for prevention and all that and welcome any article that endorses it, but we can all be very different from one another, if all are telling the truth.

I regularly read a group devoted to chastity, primarily male, and some guys there claim to go for astonishingly long periods - 3, 6, 9, 12 months without release and without ill effect physically. Mentally may be another story.

However, one person in the group was diagnosed with prostate cancer about 2 years ago and has recently brought it into remisison. In his youth up ‘till his early 30’s, I guess, he was highly active sexually and only got into the enforced chastity thing because his masturbation was ruining his marriage.

His case may very well bear out the recent findings: all his mature life he was accustomed to maybe 60 ejacuations/month, and his wife cut him down to 2, if he was good, so his fluids backed up, jammed the machinery, and cancer appeared. Maybe it would have anyway.

Seems like I’m out of danger then =).